1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel .alpha.-monoalkyl glyceryl ether and a cosmetic composition containing it.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As .alpha.-monoalkyl glyceryl ether, there have been known palmityl glyceryl ether (also called "chimyl alcohol"), stearyl glyceryl ether (also called "batyl alcohol") and oleyl glyceryl ether (also called "selachyl alcohol") which are present in the lipid of fish. It is known that they have excellent properties as an emulsifier, particularly as a W/O type emulsion stabilizer and further that they have medicinal activities such as an acceleration effect for the blood cell formation in the marrow, an anti-inflammatory affect and an antitumor activity.
However, these known .alpha.-monoalkyl glyceryl ethers have certain drawbacks such that they are solids having high melting points, their lipophilic property is too high, those having unsaturated bonds are chemically unstable and some of them are irritant to the skin.
There have been some proposals to remove these drawbacks. For instance, there has been proposed a .alpha.-monoalkyl glyceryl ether wherein a long chain alkyl group having a substituent group constituting a straight chain or a branched chain at .beta.-position, is used as the alkyl group (Japanese laid-open patent application No. 12109 of 1977).
A need continues to exist for an emulsifier for cosmetic compositions which is liquid at room temperature, is chemically stable, has good emulsion stabilisation effect and gives no irritation to the skin.